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Zeus- like your 8:17.

The other thing that jumped out at me from Steve Garwin's presentation was the concession slide - the penny finally dropped, as they've been showing this one for a while. ALL of the concessions around Cascabel have been grabbed by majors (Hancock, Newcrest, the Chile national mining company, and one other I think). Now why have they done that I wonder? Is it because they recognise Alpala as world class and hope there might be another one or two around there? Yes I think so.

Hmmm, well I think it is a combo of:

1) simple market dynamics - profit taking, fearful selling and traders
2) options being sold down - quite possibly
3) general market sentiment - SOLG is in the FTSE and is a fairly big fish now, so general sentiment has an effect. Yesterday was a red day for many shares in the FTSE due to a weak DOW and of course Brexit issues.

Were we overvalued at 45p? The biggest miner in the world didn't think so.

To that I would say what news has resulted in a 30% drop in share price? None from the company that's for sure - it's all been positive. So, it could easily move back up again in recognition of the strong news flow to come and the sharks all around.

World markets being shaky at the moment may be playing a part.

is being worked on NOW (and that statement is almost 2 months old). I look forward to an announcement on that in January too. As Alpala is something everybody wants (as opposed to the case of a so so deposit), NM will be calling the shots on this, and he will also be in no particular hurry (no need to as sOLG are cashed up at the moment). And what does calling the shots mean? It means, as he said, that conditional funding will be based on NAV and not share price.

Funding the studies is small fry. The biggie is the CAPEX at the end. A possible, and in my opinion fairly likely scenario, is a smallish package in Jan/Feb based on the PEA NAV, at say the higher of the 20-day av. share price or 0.6-0.8 NAV. Then he can put in place milestone (PFS and BFS) future funding as well, again which would be based on the higher of some paercent of NAV or the av. share price. Crucially the NAV will be going up significantly as we go along (converting more into the indicated category and expanding the resource), so that by the time of the PFS, with MRE3 out we could be looking at double again, and then at the time of the bFS will we be looking at 5x the original MRE? Quite possibly. Funding arranged on that basis would be both fair to the funder and excellent for shareholders.

Now, NM has to follow this path regardless of whether he wants to sell or go to production. If he wants to sell it needs to be from a position of unassailable strength. I can't think of a better way than to have a strong conditional funding package in place. Then he can say to the majors: "Any off you come up with is going to have to look significantly better than what we already have".

Padmaster, yes gives it a bit of extra kick hearing the words coming from him.

Ecuador - " a modern day gold and copper rush"

Good stuff, but it must be from a while ago as he says there's $45million in the bank and only makes ref to BHP having 6%. A lot has happened since then.

He also talks of doubling the resource in MRE2 - should be on course for that then.

Most insightful Dol - do come again.

Schlem - take a breath and calm down. Investors are all in the same boat here.

I recommend you read NM's Q&A particularly with ref to conditional funding. I can imagine a number of extremely positive scenarios in that respect.

Ok, pg.19 - this has to be one of the best things I've read:

"We are working on a conditional total funding package which involves the agreement of the funding parameters with financiers and off-takers NOW, at pre-arranged prices related to NPV (paraphrased from earlier on: expected to come in at $4billion in the PEA) rather than share price and conditional only on the delivery of firstly, a feasibility study, secondly, appropriate permits, and thirdly, the necessary fiscal arrangements with the Ecuadorian Gov. That way the market will be able to see that the project is substantially de-risked from ann early stage".

BINGO - Alapala is so juicy that NM is calling the shots. I imagine he is talking to car manufacturers in addition to specialist investment funds and the majors. When you've got one of the best porphyries in history, the term sheets on offtake and conditional finance agreements are going to be FANTASTIC.

When an RNS lands with info on that, then this thing is going to gap up big time.

Now of course, this could all be posturing as this is what NM would say even if he wanted to sell it. However, to get to a FID by DEC 2020 is a very short time frame indeed. And I think it's entirely possible given SOLG's strong, established position in the country and ample finance.

So, an imbargo on a hostile bid by BHP for two years, and those ridiculous options expiring beyond that...what's the plan then NM? Prove the absolute max value of this baby, then flog it for top dollar two years from now? Of course, if BHP comes in with a "friendly" offer that is appropriate (well in excess of £1/share I would think), then doubtless that would have to be considered...

Apologies if I'm regurgitating what's already been said on here today. The NM Q&A is indeed a good read:

"we expect with the early outcomes from the PEA that the share price will close the value price gap".
"This could be further enhanced by delivery of CONDITIONAL FUNDING arrangements to see the project reach bankable feasibility WITHIN TWO YEARS and hopefully an investment decision at the end of that period soon after".

I think this is the company through which NM pays himself.

Now on page 24 I note the following:
"The Samuel Consultancy Agreement provides for the issue (subject to any necessary regulatory consents or approvals) to Samuel (or its nominee) of 26,250,000 Options that:
-have an exercise price of £0.60 per Ordinary Share
- expire on the third anniversary of the date they are issued".

Can someone confirm that I'm reading this right? Is NM giving himself another 26million options through the back door?

I'm skim-reading it and the directors are already getting nice healthy salaries. If they had put the options at 80p I might have voted for them. As is, 60p is taking the p. Not that my vote will count for my - doubtless it'sa ll inconsequential to the big boys so they will pass it to keep the board sweet. Such is the way of the world. Greedy b4rst 4rds. Respect for NM has gone down a notch or two.

They are proposing the following:

Mr. Nicholas Mather 5,000,000
Mr. Brian Moller 1,425,000
Dr. Robert Weinberg 900,000
Mr. Craig Jones 900,000
Mr. James Clare 3,150,000

Agree, I shall be voting against resolutions 7-13. If the directors want more shares, let them buy them at market, or at least come up with a fairer strike/expiry combo.

And before anyone pipes up and says they'll never get the chance to buy at market, don't give me that - I've seen director buys in just about every company out there from the smallest to the largest, and with reasonable frequency. If they want to buy they will.

Scratch that - found them under Financials.

Addickt, did you find the AGM proposals on the SOLG website? My brief efforts haven't located them.

Hmm, quite possibly. Thanks NM.

He's done it many times before. Managing a sale is an area of expertise for him.